Finally Day 5- Route 66

A few friends on facebook,(and my mother) have been asking me when I was going to finish my Route 66 trip on this blog. To be honest the motivation hasn't really been there, I find it hard to write, always knowing that people are reading, judging, finding every misplaced comma and so on and so forth. Sometimes I have to just take a step back and say to myself, who cares? Seriously, just do what you like and have fun and thus here I am writing in my blogsppot again. Andy would be upset with me for doubting myself, and I must admit I am in love with how much faith he always has in me all the time to better myself. So Los Angles has been so incredibly awesome and I will eventually get to that, but for now let's finish up Route 66.

DAY 5: New Mexico to the Grand Canyon


New Mexico brought promises of seeing real Indian reservations, which is something that I truly wanted to do. I wanted to purchase something handmade from the person who made it. All along the sides of the roads were signs saying "EXIT NOW, REAL INDIAN MOCCASINS" or " EXIT NOW, KACHINA DOLLS!" Now I understand the tourist appeal to all of these things, but I still wanted to stop. Just like every time I would drive from Orlando to Tennessee I would always stop at an Indian River fruit stand and buy a bag of oranges and salt water taffy for my mom and brothers. Andy kept saying, "it's just a tourist trap" and they were, and some were kind of sketchy and scary too but I did find some treasures, including a Kachina doll, which I may post pictures of later. New Mexico was a beautiful drive but our main agenda of the day was to get to The Grand Canyon, set up camp and relax around the camp fire with some wine and our dogs. First we stopped off in The Petrified National Forest but only a few miles in because I really wanted to see the Painted Desert. I really wish we wouldn't have stopped at so many roadside "genuine Indian" shops so that we could have spent the full two to three hours needed there to explore. Although from what the park ranger told me The Petrified Forest is barley there anymore due to tourists collecting pieces of it for souvenirs over the years. The Painted Desert was absolutely breath taking and I just stood out in a spot by myself and I took it all in. I thought about what my Dad would think about me being this far away from home. In my heart I  felt him standing beside me with his hand on my back telling me he was proud, and I started crying. It may sound cheesy and stupid but out there in the middle of nowhere as far away from home as I had ever been in a place that holds no memory of my father, I felt closest to him. I tear up even now just thinking about it and maybe that's why I have postponed the writing process. On this entire trip my favorite time ever was the few minutes that I got to spend in the Painted Desert with my fathers memory. I hope to go back there again some day.
Once we got to our campground in Arizona we set up camp drove to the south rim and took a look at the grandest of all canyons, The Grand Canyon. After a few minutes there and as we started losing sunlight we headed back to camp and threw a couple of steaks on the grill and celebrated! Check out pictures of the day below.

The last pic was at the end of the night and Harvey getting absolutely babied , wrapped up in a hoodie next to the fire. I hope you enjoyed the pics from the Painted Desert and the couple from The Grand Canyon. Stay tuned for day 6 and loads more pictures from the canyon, Until we meet again, friends.